Hands Skilled In Caring Also Skilled In Carving Memories In Wood

And as he chats about the recently completed work that took him six years to finish, an obvious pride creeps across the face of the Millbrook Farms, Lower Macungie Township, resident. For carved into each intricate detail of the beautiful wood sculpture are memories, many memories.

Johnson, you see, is a "hobby" wood-carver, and a physician by profession. Now a family practitioner in Northampton, he says he captured one of the best aspects of his career in the carving.

"I enjoyed delivering babies. It was such a happy time for couples and it was fun being a part of it," the physician explains.

While he no longer is involved in delivery, he says that while he practiced in Wellsboro for several years, he was involved in everything from pediatrics to surgery and delivering babies.

"It got so busy I had to leave. I came to Allentown six years ago, cut back on babies and I guess that's why I started carving this," he admits.

The wood used for the carving has special significance, too, he explains. It comes from the homestead of his wife Kathleen's family in Dorneyville.

"I was cutting up wood one day and found this piece and said I gotta make something out of this," Johnson relates.

He says of the carving, "The hands in the carving are mine. I just looked at my hands and carved."

The baby involved a little more research. "I'd go to the nursery at the hospital when I was there, and study the babies. When I worked on the ears, I'd study the ears to find out where the folds were. I have a Christmas card with baby footprints I got from a friend several years ago, and I used that for the feet size. I tried to make it as much to scale as possible," he says.

His office nurses thought he did just fine. "They weighed it on the baby scale," he adds laughing, and it weighed in at 8 pounds, 4 ounces. Subtracting the hands, it's about a seven pound baby."

Johnson says he worked on the baby carving on and off over six years, taking about a year off to finish his basement to make more room for his three children, two of whom are teen-agers.

He works in a separate basement work area, or finds a peaceful spot on the back patio. "I just put the wood in my lap and started carving," he says.

For the finish on the latest work, Johnson used five layers of tung oil. He designed a special stand to hold the work.

Johnson says he's been interested in carving, in art, since he was a small child. "I was always carving things. I guess I thought I'd be an artist for a while," he reflects with a grin. "My mother used to paint. It runs in the family."

The doctor says he has taken only one sculpturing course, while in college at the University of Vermont.

He remembers, "My first big carving was of a guy I spent 18 hours on a bus with in a snow storm. The fellow had stepped on a land mine in World War II and he was traveling across country trying to find his sister. He impressed me. I did the carving from memory, out of oak."

Johnson says he has given most of his carvings away, as gifts. Pointing to a Madonna adorning a living room wall, he adds that had been a gift to his wife.

Johnson says he always uses hardwood for his wood-carvings. "It goes more slowly because you have to work carefully. Once it's gone, that's it. You have to redistribute things."

The doctor says wood-carving is more than a hobby for him; it is a genuine way of relaxing. "I get so engrossed in it, the hours just fly by," he says.

He says he and his sons have another "family hobby," collecting Indian artifacts. They've collected 75 pieces around the area, from arrowheads to tomahawk heads. For that hobby, one has to have a good eye, too.

Johnson said with regard to his wood-carving, he was pondering what to do next as he cleaned up his basement work area recently.

"I have a couple of things in mind. I took a picture from a newspaper that struck me, a picture of two hands praying, an old man and a baby . . .